


The Arc of Conflict, Saga 20: We Need to Talk.

by bzarcher, solarbird



Series: Of Gods and Monsters [123]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Background Relationships, Betrayal, Biological Warfare, Biological Weapons, Bisexual Female Character, Conditioning, Confessions, Confrontations, Divided Loyalties, Espionage, F/F, F/M, MI6 Agents, Multi, Oasis (Overwatch), Overwatch Nepal, Politics, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory, Russia, Secrets, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:06:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27789463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bzarcher/pseuds/bzarcher, https://archiveofourown.org/users/solarbird/pseuds/solarbird
Summary: Katya Volskaya's government in Russia has destroyed the omnium Koschei, and held their own against the Gods of Oasis. But with Jesse McCree having upset a precarious balance, Lena, Hana, and Sombra have intervened in Russia's rising civil war, and the fragile peace between Overwatch and Oasis has been shattered.Brigitte, Lúcio, and Hanzo have learned all they can about possible Overwatch collusion with Russia's biological warfare programme against the Gods of Oasis. Now, they must confront Jack Morrison directly.Of Gods and Monsters: The Arc of Conflictis a continuance ofThe Arc of Ascension,The Arc of Creation, andThe Armourer and the Living Weapon. To follow the story as it appears,please subscribe to the series.
Relationships: Brigitte Lindholm/Lúcio Correia dos Santos, Brigitte Lindholm/Lúcio Correia dos Santos/Hana "D.Va" Song, Hanzo Shimada/Mei-Ling Zhou
Series: Of Gods and Monsters [123]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/972024
Comments: 26
Kudos: 22





	The Arc of Conflict, Saga 20: We Need to Talk.

**Author's Note:**

> [The formerly invitation-only widowtracer discord server](https://discord.gg/NKnPpx43mK) has decided to open up to widowtracerly fans in general - yes, gingerspider shippers are welcome - so come join that if you like!
> 
> BUFFER WATCH: JANUARY 10, 2021.
> 
> dirtyclaws has launched [a public fan-run _Of Gods and Monsters_ discord server](https://discord.gg/pDZMpVT) and invites everyone to come join it!

Jack Morrison looked up from his paperwork and blinked as he caught the sound of engines overhead.

He tapped on the intercom to Operations with one hand while making sure his files were secured with the other.

“Morrison here. Do we have incoming?”

The officer of the day took a moment to clear their throat. “Yes sir. We had a request from... ah… ’Squire Lindholm’ asking to land and speak with you, actually. She’s still on the access list, so we cleared her for arrival.”

"How many in her party?"

"Three, sir."

Jack hesitated. He _had_ made the decision to leave them on the list. An olive branch, of sorts, and the OOD had done everything right. But... he had a bad feeling about this. _No advance notice_ , he thought, _just **here** all of the sudden? This could go badly._

“Got it. Please have a security detail show Miss Lindholm and anyone with her to my office. Inform them they are to remain outside it until her party leaves.”

“We’ll get it done, Commander.”

“Thanks. Morrison out.”

He released the intercom, and straightened his jacket a bit before making sure nothing of consequence was visible to a casual observer. 

_Let’s see what happens._

\-----

Brigitte grabbed her backpack from beneath her seat, stretching as she caught up with Hanzo and Lú walking down the ramp to where a stick of four security officers stood waiting. 

_That’s not good,_ she thought. _Now I wish we'd brought Papa Reinhardt along too._

The patrol’s leader stepped up and saluted the group - not just Hanzo - which she thought was nice. “Good afternoon. I’m Corporal Aliu. I’m here to show you to Commander Morrison’s office.”

She caught the way Hanzo and Lúcio stiffened slightly. 

“I believe we know the way,” Hanzo said dryly, and his hand settled against his hip, casual, but not far from where he could draw his bow, either. 

Aliu coughed, clearly aware of the awkwardness. “I appreciate that, sir, but we're operating under wartime protocols. All non-station personnel will be escorted while on base."

Aliu turned to face Squire Lindholm. "Sorry, ma'am - but orders are orders.” 

Hanzo shifted slightly, and Lú looked at her out of the corner of his eye.

"We also didn't realise the Lieutenant was with the party. We only had your name, ma'am." They turned back to Hanzo. "Sir."

Brigiite took a second to really look at the soldiers in front of them, and didn’t really see anything in their body language that screamed _threat_ to her. She shifted her backpack up onto her shoulder, and rocked her head back from side to side, as if she was trying to work a crick out of her neck.

Lú gave a little bob of his head that could have been mistaken for responding to a catchy beat, then gave Hanzo a subtle ok sign. 

“Very well,” Hanzo agreed, and gave Aliu a gracious nod. After all, he was technically still a superior officer, and for that matter, the most senior member of the group. “Please - lead on.”

 _Protocol or not, if he wanted us to feel unwelcome,_ Brigitte thought as they entered the corridor that would lead to the Commander's office, _he’s off to a really good start._

\-----

"If I didn't trust you," Morrison pointed out, "you wouldn't've had clearance, and we wouldn't have let you land."

"What's... what's that mean?" she asked. "You wouldn't have..."

"It means," he jumped in, "that your father's new shielding system is quite effective, and would've kept you away from the facility."

"Oh," she remembered. A good third of it was her design. As long as they brought it up before they were in range, it would be a safe enough deterrent. "That's all."

"That's all," he said, with a nod. "Besides, now that I can see all of you in person, I know you haven't been... adjusted."

"That's all it takes you?" Lúcio said.

"These days they aren't bothering to hide their work. If I didn't know you, it might be different - but I do." He stepped back around his desk, gesturing at the chairs. "So. Why _are_ you here? There has to be a pretty good reason."

"Yeah. You know why Oasis declared war, right?"

"Jesse. And what's in the propaganda."

"Does the propaganda include biowarfare?" Hanzo asked.

"It does," Morrison replied. "Are you telling me they believe it?"

"Yes."

"Huh," he said, leaning forward. "We thought that was just disinformation."

"They're convinced Russia's the main force, but that you're helping them," Lúcio added. "If you can prove you're not, maybe we can clear this whole thing up. Bump it down a bit."

"And you know this via..."

"Mei-Ling," Hanzo said. "She told me." He didn't see any need for Hana's confirmation to be mentioned, and Brigitte nodded.

"They think you helped the Russians with the new SEP, and now you're helping them with this, too."

"I didn't..." he started to shout, then slumped, lowering his voice. "I did not help them with the SEP project. I've told everyone who will listen, and tried to tell those who won't. Sometimes I think only Ana believes me, but..."

He folded his hands together, making a little steeple with his fingers, arms on his desk.

"Athena, rescan the room for active microphones."

"Yes, commander." A moment passed. "No unauthorised active microphones detected."

"Full privacy protocols please. Ten minutes or until I open my office doors."

"Yes, commander," she said, and the screens with her logo cleared, and went dark.

He brought out a small camera of his own from his desk, and put it on record.

"I know why they think I did. If I tell you, it doesn't leave this room. Not even to Dr. Zhou" - he looked into Brigitte and Lúcio's eyes - "or Hana Song. Or anyone else. Agreed?"

Another one of those subtle check downs. Hanzo was the last to agree, and spoke for them.

“Very well. Please, proceed.”

Jack took a quick look to make sure the camera would capture him. Even if he locked it in the deepest, darkest hole he could find until the crack of doom, this statement would still be on the record. 

"I did not give Jesse McCree a copy of the SEP protocols, or an archive unit. The Overwatch copy, as far as I know, was destroyed with Geneva. I didn't in fact give him anything other than what I've reported - permission to pursue what he described as an intelligence opportunity in the American southwest."

"But," Hanzo said, frowning.

"But... I kept the prototype unit. We went through a whole set of designs when creating the archives, and that included several mockup units for testing. Technically they weren't even classified, so I kept the final one we approved. It's just the shell, with a standard data storage unit in it for electrical compliance testing - but it looks real, because in a way, it is. It works just like any other portable drive, so... I kept my own medical records on it. I had the right to keep a copy, and it just seemed fitting."

"And he stole it?!" Brigitte asked, jumping up from her chair. "That's how...?"

Morrison nodded. "I wasn't sure. I hoped not. But I didn't have it here, so I couldn't just check. I'd squirreled it away in one of my personal storage facilities, the ones I keep... just in case." _Just in case something like Geneva ever happens again,_ said the back of his mind. "None of them had ever been breached, but I finally managed to get down to - well, where doesn't matter - and check."

"It was gone," Hanzo said.

"It was gone," Morrison confirmed.

"So some of the data they were selling," Lúcio said, "was yours."

"That's my guess," Morrison said. "Some of the sample material from their auction..." He shook his head. "It was randomised a bit, but I'm pretty sure it was mine."

"Why did you do such a foolish thing?" Hanzo demanded.

"At the time? It didn't seem like a big deal. We’d _won_ , after all. Or at least we thought we had. Later, it was... a memory of past mistakes. Something never to do again." He looked at the three of them, turning his head as he spoke. "The hell we all went through is part of why I'm so against everything they're doing now. Why we all should be. If there were any more survivors, I'm sure every one of them would feel the same way."

"Oh," Brigitte whispered. _But it's not like that this time_ , she thought. _Not... not really._

"So that's it," Lúcio said. "That's gonna be a hard sell."

"An impossible one," Jack replied. "They aren't listening anymore, and I'm not even sure I can blame them." He leaned back in his chair. "Hell, I'm not even sure I'd believe it myself. As far as they're concerned, I gave McCree the archive copy from Geneva. It's a simpler explanation than the reality, and matches the generally known facts."

"But Overwatch isn't helping Russia," Brigitte injected. "With this."

"No. Absolutely not. We've been suspecting Volskaya of UN charter violations, too. Not on the scale of Oasis, but meaningful nonetheless. Certain members of the Security Council are trying to do something about it through backchannels, but it hasn’t gone far - Russia's decided they're just going to do things their own way, come hell or high water, just like they always have."

"Damn," Brigitte said. 

"So there was a secret," Lúcio said, blowing out a long sigh as he leaned back in his chair, "just not the one we thought."

Jack nodded regretfully. "I'm afraid so."

"If there is nothing classified about your duplicate," Hanzo demanded, "why have you been hiding the theft?"

Jack checked his timer. Two minutes of privacy mode left. Enough.

"Because a lot of the major governments are in denial about what we're facing. They're tired of existential threats, and would rather pretend the one we're facing now just isn't real. They're inching closer and closer to deciding that Oasis isn't actually a problem. To deciding that what they're doing either isn't actually happening, or isn't actually bad."

He shook his head despairingly.

"My testimony and Ana's testimony about the information we've been able to gather - what we know about what they do - have been key to holding that at bay."

"And?" Lúcio was trying to be cool, but Jack could see the way he had tensed again.

"And if this gets to the wrong people..." He blew out a rush of air, a soft ‘hooooing’ sigh. "I'm not going to lie to you. This was an operational failure on my part, I admit that. I've got friends on the inside telling me there are people out for my head. Whether it's deserved or not, the blame for this - for Jesse, for everything - would land on me, as commander."

"And then they have their excuse," Hanzo muttered, irritated by the infighting implied.

"Then they have their excuse," Morrison confirmed.

"So if you're gone..." Lúcio said with a long look over at Brigitte, "that leaves just Ana and Volskaya to make the case."

"A few more than that, but yeah, you get the idea." He straightened up, putting on his best Commander Morrison face. "Look, it's not about me. At least, I don't think it's about me. I don't want it to be about me - it's about _them_ , and what they're willing to do."

He leaned back against a little in his chair, making sure to stay in camera range.

"Think about it," he continued. "This is how Talon - how Oasis, now - acts when there's active opposition right in front of them, calling them out. They're taking people, they're changing them - hell, changing whole populations of people without so much as a say-so. Imagine what they'll do when there's no one left fighting them. When there's no one else even trying to say no."

"That sounds quite a bit like something Reaper said when all this started, back in Gibraltar,” Hanzo observed.

Jack Morrison nodded, then shrugged as he looked past the archer’s shoulder and out at the cold peaks of the Himalayan mountains. "Maybe he wasn't so wrong."

\-----

In her office two doors away, Annalise Marchand, recently-appointed executive officer for Overwatch Nepal, took off the earpiece she’d been using to listen in from a device she’d planted on the outside of Morrison’s office her first day on the job. Strictly speaking, it wasn't in Morrison's office, and strictly speaking, it wasn't even a microphone. Not in any classic sense.

But it still recorded the tiniest of pressure changes just fine. And - with the aid of surprisingly little processing power - that was enough.

She put her hand in her hands for a full five seconds rather than scream in frustration, and then reached for her keyboard.

She had _believed_ in him. God damn it all to hell, she had believed.

\-----

Jack and Hanzo stood with Brigitte and Lúcio in the hangar as the Overwatch Dolphin-class transport finished its pre-flight checkout. Hanzo would be staying a few hours longer, at the request of his brother, Genji, before catching a ride on the daily Nepal-Taipei transport.

"I'm sorry we need to keep the flyer," Morrison said, standing by the aircraft's loading ramp. "We just have too few aircraft to lend them out indefinitely. If it's any consolation, our pilot will get the two of you home more quickly in a Dolphin than you could on your own."

"That's fine - it makes sense," Brigitte said with a nod. Good aircraft cost money, and now that her papa had a recall-class flyer in Sweden, there really wasn't any reason for her and Reinhardt to have one of their own. "The one we had was just going to be hangared most of the time anyway. If we need to get back here quickly, Papa can pick us up."

"Thanks for understanding. I hope we've managed to clear the air a little."

"Yeah," Lúcio said, with a tilt of his head. "I think we have. I'm not sure you're goin' about it the right way, but I get why you're doing it."

"Just - look. Whatever you decide to do, be careful. I know how all of you feel about your..."

He gave Hanzo a glance as Brigitte frowned.

"...girlfriends," Morrison continued, "but always remember - they're _all_ willing to do _anything_ , and as long as it works out the way they want, they'll feel fine about it later. Maybe even if it doesn't."

"You think that applies to Mei, as well?" Hanzo asked. "I do not."

"I do," Morrison replied. "But for your sake, I'll hope I'm wrong."

"Commander Morrison!" the pilot called from the cockpit. "Dolphin 102 ready to depart."

"Thank you, Lieutenant!" Morrison called back. "Well, this is goodbye again. For whatever it's worth, good luck."

They said their goodbyes and Brigitte and Lúcio started up their separate loading ramps as Jack and Hanzo walked briskly across the hangar, towards the corridor leading down to Jack's office. And as Brigitte strapped herself into her seat for their trip back to Germany, she couldn't help but think about what Jack had said, and what it meant.

 _He doesn't want to stop this war_ , she realised.

_He just wants to fight it on his own terms._

\-----

M: He had a what?

MARCHAND: A prototype drive. From what he told the other special agents, it wasn't one of the official archives, it was a unit he made up himself from the final approval master. It had his own medical records, and some relevant information from the SEP, but not the entire archive.

M: Do you believe him on that?

MARCHAND: I think so. At very least, he is sticking to his story that the actual archive was destroyed with Geneva. He turned something on before he told them - I am fairly certain it was a voice recorder, but it could have been a camera. Either way, he was willing to record himself saying it. And their reactions, as well.

LEITER: So that's how Jesse got his bait. Stole it from Jack.

MARCHAND: I’ll try to get the recording device, too, and copy its data.

M: If true, it means he's gone out of his way not to lie - but he's certainly gone out of his way to mislead us.

MARCHAND: Life of an intelligence operator, is it not?

LEITER: Not when you're supposed to be on the same side.

M: Don't be naive, L. You know better. Regardless, McCree had it - and its contents, no doubt.

MARCHAND: No doubt.

M: Well then. That explains all too much, doesn't it?

LEITER: I'm afraid it does.

M: Thank you, Annalise. We'll be in touch.

MARCHAND: Acknowledged. Marchand out.

`[MARCHAND has disconnected from group chat]`

M: Well. There we are.

LEITER: Yeah. Here we are.

M: Disappointing, I have to say. Do you think he let McCree steal it, or just trusted him too much?

LEITER: It's been a small operation in Nepal, and a very close knit team. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

M: You realise that only makes him look even more unsuited, any longer, for this kind of position.

LEITER: I'm not sure I agree... but it's a valid question. You might be right.

M: Our superiors will most certainly think I am. I pulled strings to get Marchand this assignment because I wanted to give him a fair shake. Instead he's hung himself.

LEITER: Yeah.

M: We can't not report it. We're not the only one she's talking to.

LEITER: I know. We have to.

M: I am sorry.

LEITER: I am too.

LEITER: Well.

M: You know what will happen now.

LEITER: Not necessarily. And I still think the project is worth salvaging. There are a lot of good people in the organisation. Maybe bring it in house, get some sort of compromise worked out with Oasis before we lose anybody else to them. At least, if the upper-ups will go along.

M: I agree. It's halfway back in-house already, L. We might as well bring it the rest of the way home.

LEITER: What about Amari?

M: Amari's brilliant, but not an intelligence officer. Once the path forward is clear, I'm confident she could be convinced to take early retirement. She may well decide that on her own.

LEITER: Think so?

M: I do. Morrison will be the hard case, if it comes to that.

LEITER: I want to arrange a soft landing for him either way. Clean slate on the PETRAS violations, retirement with full honors. None of it's really his fault, and he's put in a whole life of service. Can I get your backing on that, from your side? Or at least, you know, non-opposition? It would help.

M: ...

M: ...yes. Of course. This mess is at least partly his fault, but he's not actually a bad man, and he has done a lot of actual good. I'll do what I can to make sure our side is onboard.

LEITER: Thanks, M.

M: Not at all. Well. I suppose it's time to face the music.

LEITER: I've never understood that expression. But yeah, me too. Good luck.

M: See you soon.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the fifty-second instalment of _Of Gods and Monsters: The Arc of Conflict_. To follow the story, [subscribe to the series via this link](https://archiveofourown.org/series/972024), rather than to the individual works.


End file.
